Southwest Sidetracks.

Sandwich Shoppe

The Name Says It All

What's in a name? Practically the whole menu, at The Sandwich Shoppe in downtown Joliet.

Owned by Dan Dunn and his wife, Chris, the lunchtime-only restaurant draws most of its trade from surrounding businesses.

"Basically we're serving all the city and county buildings, the jail, the courthouse and all the banks," said Dan Dunn, whose restaurant recently celebrated its 13th anniversary. "We also get a lot of people who used to work downtown who come back and say hello on their days off. It seems like it's a little family down here. I bet I know seven out of 10 customers by their first name."

As the name implies, sandwiches are the staple here. Besides the basics like ham, turkey, tuna, egg salad, roast beef and salami, the restaurant also serves submarines, stuffed potatoes, soups and salads.

Sandwiches range from $1.35 for a simple peanut butter and jelly to $3.25 for a four-meat hoagie. Baked potatoes, stuffed with broccoli and cheese or chili, cheese and sour cream, cost $3.25. Homemade soups like crab bisque, Italian sausage, chicken and rice, vegetable beef and beef noodle run $1.15 for a small and $2.15 for a large. Chili costs $1.25 a bowl.

"We go through 25 to 30 gallons of chili a week," Dunn said. "Our taco salad ($2.10 and $3.20) is probably our biggest seller. That's where all the chili goes."

"Basically it's for people who want a quick lunch that's not the old hamburger and fries greasy lunch," Dunn said.

The 75-seat dining room is decorated in black and white, its walls adorned with pencil caricatures of downtown business leaders.

For people who can't make it to the Shoppe, a delivery menu offers the same items as the regular menu as well as a sack lunch special consisting of a drink, cookies and a sandwich and chips or soup, salad and bread, for $4.

For 10 years, lunches were delivered on foot and only to downtown customers, but now, for a nominal fee, delivery drivers are taking the service farther afield.

"My wife and I bought this and we didn't know what we were doing and it's just gotten bigger and bigger," Dunn said.

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The Sandwich Shoppe, 79 N. Chicago St. in Joliet, is open from 10:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. Monday through Friday. Closed Saturday and Sunday. Call 815-723-8071.